Looking Up: Summer’s night sky in all its glory

Peter BeckerMore Content Now

Friday

Aug 3, 2018 at 11:51 AMAug 3, 2018 at 11:51 AM

It’s prime time for summer stargazing! Nights are usually warm, and though you may have to have insect spray and stay up a little late for the stars to really show, the summer evening sky is spectacular. Adding to the evening scene this year are four wonderfully bright planets, starting from the southeast to the west, Mars, Saturn, Jupiter and Venus.Last quarter moon is on August 4, sliding towards New Moon on the 11th. That means all this week the evening sky and more and more into the morning’s wee hours, you have a moonless sky.

If you can get away from annoying light pollution and if the sky is very clear and with low humidity, you have the chance to see the heavens closer to how they were meant to be seen. Be sure to let your eyes adapt to the darkness and cover your flashlight with red paper.

The Milky Way Band is especially bright in the summer since it includes the portion where we are literally looking towards the wide, bright central hub of our vast spiral galaxy we call home.

Our sun is one of the billions of stars within this broad galaxy, and we are therefore looking at the spiral from inside. What we see as the overlapping spiral arms is a hazy band stretching across the sky, the illumination from millions upon millions of stars and reflection from the swirling dust clouds ("nebulae") that intertwine the stellar realm.

This band widens as we look towards the central hub in the direction of the constellation Sagittarius the Archer. This group’s brightest stars also make up the "Teapot" asterism, and the billowing Milky Way on a summer night can be imagined as steam rising from the Teapot’s spout.

In early August, look low in the southeast for the Teapot, soon after twilight deepens into the true night. Around 11 p.m., the Teapot is due south.

Mars has just reached its closest approach to the Earth in 15 years, and it is marvelously bright, glowing at magnitude -2.8. Its color is somewhere between red and gold. Look southeast. Saturn is about 30 degrees west of Mars, right over the Teapot, shining at +0.1 and yellowish in tinge. Look further west for Jupiter, bright at -2.1 and white, in the south-southwest in the evening. During evening twilight look for brilliant Venus, magnitude -4.3 and very white, in the west.

Look for the planet Earth, right beneath your feet and very dark - unless you can’t get away from street lights. Earth is there all night long, by the way!

Mercury is currently hiding in the glare of the sun. Uranus and Neptune are also well placed in the pre-dawn sky but you’ll need binoculars and good finder charts such as found at skyandtelescope.com.

Coming up: The Perseid Meteor Shower, which peaks August 12 /13. You can see them for several nights before or after. More next week!

Keep Looking Up!— Peter Becker is Managing Editor at The News Eagle in Hawley, PA. Notes are welcome at news@neagle.com. Please mention in what newspaper or web site you read this column.

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